Saturday, February 19, 2005
Aloha from Hawaii
I convinced my wife to let the family come to O'ahu for our yearly Winter break vacation. Last year it was Kaua'i, and the year before that Mau'i, but none of those islands panned out for winter surf the way I expect O'ahu to.
We landed Friday evening and drove our rental car over the new (to me) H3 highway to Kailua, on the windward side (east). We want to avoid touristy Honolulu, but I couldn't convince her let the family stay on the North shore, because the beaches there would be too unsafe for our small children.
I opted, at the last minute, not to bring my boards from CA. I had packed them up, but then decided I didn't want to deal with lugging the bag around since we were running late for the airport. I checked out Kimo's Surf Hut (seems like every third local is named Kimo) in Kailua for a rental board, but he had only one board that was my size and he was charging $25 a day for a weekly rental (vs. $7 a day for a weekly rental in Kaua'i last year). I decided to try my luck at the surf shops up in Haleiwa (hal-ay-ee-va), for either renting or buying a board and selling it back at trip's end. The North Shore is about 45 miles and roughly 50 minutes from Kailua via H3-H1-H2. It's kind of ironic, I fly 3000 miles for good/warm surf but my commute doesn't change.
As I entered Haleiwa I started scoping for a surf shop to rent a board at. I checked out the Quicksilver store and saw the $650 Gerry Lopez shortboards for sale; ouch! I stopped in a hole in the wall store a couple blocks down and saw a used Shea Lopez 7'4" gun for $180, but didn't pick it up because that length of board will only allow me to get into situations that I shouldn't be in. However, I was now definitely on the prowl for a used board to purchase, because the economics of buying and reselling vs. renting were looking better and better. The last shop on the road North out of town was Surf 'n Sea, which had a lot of boards out front. I checked out the boards in front, but they were all pretty much in bad shape, so I decided to see what they had inside. As my eyes adjusted to the interior lighting, I was floored by the quantity of boards and people in this place. There were two foot wide aisles through which people were sideslipping by each other while trying not to knock the boards over. There were boards on the ceiling, boards on the floor, and the used boards were jammed together so tightly on the back wall that it was like solving a Rubik's cube to try and extract one to look at. I looked at a number of boards, including a very cool Hobie chambered balsa quad fin thruster, but settled on a used 6' 8" for $220. The board is in primo shape and has nearly the exact dimensions of my 6' 8" back home and was, (ironically) shaped in Santa Cruz. I figure I can put the board on consignment for $50 less than I paid for it, saving me $100 vs. renting for the week.
I left the store and shoehorned the board into the little rental car, along with a new leash, a Mr. Zog's Sex Wax, and a Futures fin key. I got into Northbound traffic, which was moving at about 3 miles per hour, and read my Surfer's Guide to Hawaii while I waited for traffic to move. I'm not sure why things were moving so slowly, perhaps it was the Pipeline competition 4 miles ahead that was causing people to rubberneck. I pulled out at Haleiwa State Park to check out the longboarders doing their thing, then decided to keep moving North. Ten minutes and one mile later I decided to jump out and surf the messy looking break I could see from the road. I think it called was Himalaya's. I paddled out through the channel, which was very choppy from the sideshore wind, and made it into the lineup. Long story short, I spent about 45 minutes paddling around watching waves, but did not try to catch any. I saw a sea turtle up close and personal on the way back in, which sort of made up for my lack of rides. Now that I have the drive memorized and my gear in order, I hope to have a much longer session tomorrow...
We landed Friday evening and drove our rental car over the new (to me) H3 highway to Kailua, on the windward side (east). We want to avoid touristy Honolulu, but I couldn't convince her let the family stay on the North shore, because the beaches there would be too unsafe for our small children.
I opted, at the last minute, not to bring my boards from CA. I had packed them up, but then decided I didn't want to deal with lugging the bag around since we were running late for the airport. I checked out Kimo's Surf Hut (seems like every third local is named Kimo) in Kailua for a rental board, but he had only one board that was my size and he was charging $25 a day for a weekly rental (vs. $7 a day for a weekly rental in Kaua'i last year). I decided to try my luck at the surf shops up in Haleiwa (hal-ay-ee-va), for either renting or buying a board and selling it back at trip's end. The North Shore is about 45 miles and roughly 50 minutes from Kailua via H3-H1-H2. It's kind of ironic, I fly 3000 miles for good/warm surf but my commute doesn't change.
As I entered Haleiwa I started scoping for a surf shop to rent a board at. I checked out the Quicksilver store and saw the $650 Gerry Lopez shortboards for sale; ouch! I stopped in a hole in the wall store a couple blocks down and saw a used Shea Lopez 7'4" gun for $180, but didn't pick it up because that length of board will only allow me to get into situations that I shouldn't be in. However, I was now definitely on the prowl for a used board to purchase, because the economics of buying and reselling vs. renting were looking better and better. The last shop on the road North out of town was Surf 'n Sea, which had a lot of boards out front. I checked out the boards in front, but they were all pretty much in bad shape, so I decided to see what they had inside. As my eyes adjusted to the interior lighting, I was floored by the quantity of boards and people in this place. There were two foot wide aisles through which people were sideslipping by each other while trying not to knock the boards over. There were boards on the ceiling, boards on the floor, and the used boards were jammed together so tightly on the back wall that it was like solving a Rubik's cube to try and extract one to look at. I looked at a number of boards, including a very cool Hobie chambered balsa quad fin thruster, but settled on a used 6' 8" for $220. The board is in primo shape and has nearly the exact dimensions of my 6' 8" back home and was, (ironically) shaped in Santa Cruz. I figure I can put the board on consignment for $50 less than I paid for it, saving me $100 vs. renting for the week.
I left the store and shoehorned the board into the little rental car, along with a new leash, a Mr. Zog's Sex Wax, and a Futures fin key. I got into Northbound traffic, which was moving at about 3 miles per hour, and read my Surfer's Guide to Hawaii while I waited for traffic to move. I'm not sure why things were moving so slowly, perhaps it was the Pipeline competition 4 miles ahead that was causing people to rubberneck. I pulled out at Haleiwa State Park to check out the longboarders doing their thing, then decided to keep moving North. Ten minutes and one mile later I decided to jump out and surf the messy looking break I could see from the road. I think it called was Himalaya's. I paddled out through the channel, which was very choppy from the sideshore wind, and made it into the lineup. Long story short, I spent about 45 minutes paddling around watching waves, but did not try to catch any. I saw a sea turtle up close and personal on the way back in, which sort of made up for my lack of rides. Now that I have the drive memorized and my gear in order, I hope to have a much longer session tomorrow...
